Warm smile: He spent his first four days ‘looking dead’ and cold to the touch. But bouncing baby Edward Ives is now full of life after pioneering freezing treatment slowed his heart rate (Picture: Caters)

A baby was ‘frozen’ for four days to keep him alive. Edward Ives had just a five per cent chance of survival as his heart was racing at more than 300 beats a minute.

So doctors tried to force it to slow down by lowering his temperature.

The newborn’s parents nervously watched as their son lay sedated and cold to the touch – wrapped up in a blanket filled with cooling gel.

But the pioneering treatment worked and, on the evening of the fourth day, his heartbeat finally became normal.

‘It was horrible to see him lying there, freezing in nothing but a nappy,’ said mother Claire Ives, 29. ‘It looked like he was dead.

‘All I wanted to do was scoop him up and give him a warm cuddle. I just had to keep reminding myself that it was saving his life.’

Mrs Ives, a nurse, first guessed something was wrong with Edward when she was 35 weeks pregnant and heard his heart beating quickly.

Tests confirmed her suspicions. Her unborn child had supraventricular tachycardia and would need to be delivered immediately.

She and husband Phillip, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, feared the worst.

But after being slowly warmed back up to 37C (98.6F) from 33.3C, Edward left hospital a month after his birth in August at University College London Hospital.

‘When I got him home, it felt like a dream come true,’ added Mrs Ives.